


With Eyes Unclouded

by Rin_the_Shadow



Category: Dororo (Anime 2019)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Animal Death, Character death is for the horse, Crying, Demons, Dororo is a good bro, Families of Choice, Gen, Hyakkimaru Is a Good Bro, Hyogo and Mutsu are good bros, Nonverbal Communication, Plans going awry, Sibling Bonding, Tahomaru is a good bro, basically an idea dump in prose form, i don't think it's to the level of the show but it is still more than my norm, in the sense that my other endings tend to branch, mostly in present tense, possible PTSD, she's not one of the protagonists but she's a major character to me, some artistic license taken, some parallels to canon, some violence a bit more graphic than what i tend to write, technically AU to the AU, working together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-25
Updated: 2019-07-05
Packaged: 2020-05-19 08:13:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,218
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19353010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rin_the_Shadow/pseuds/Rin_the_Shadow
Summary: Things have very rapidly spiraled out of control. Still, they will stand together.Another possible endgame branch from my Dororo AU. It is *mostly* everybody lives, but please see the above for the death tag.





	1. Things Go Awry

It was supposed to be a simple visit. Meet up with Hyogo and Mutsu and trade what information they’ve gotten so far, see how the land is doing and make sure they don’t need to change anything in their strategy. And, he kind of wanted to see his brother spar with them alongside him, just to see if they get along as well as he likes to imagine they will.

So of course, it only takes about a half hour before everything goes completely wrong, scouts find them, and Dororo’s being dragged off towards Daigo Kagemitsu’s castle. Because of course it would have been too much to ask for all three of them to escape, or for one of the fools to recognize him and actually start asking the questions they need to in order to know what’s actually going on.

They aren’t going to make it in time. There is no way around it. Though he trusts Hyogo and Mutsu to stall as best they can, he doesn’t know what his father’s plans are for Dororo, or even if he’s still at home. With any luck, he’ll have marched already, he won’t be home, and they’ll simply hold Dororo in the cells until he or his father gives an order.

But Hyakkimaru is already panicking and he can’t shake the feeling that they’ll hurt that kid in some way, to make him reckless, or simply out of petty vengeance. They are trained better than that. They _must_ wait. And he tries to explain that to his brother, who just keeps shaking his head and choking out how he _needs_ to get him back.

They won’t get back in time. Tahomaru remembers what he told him earlier that day, how he was going to like Hyogo—he’s always pretty mellow, and can be funny when he wants to—how Mutsu might be a little intimidating at first, but she is really very calm and gentle once you get to know her. How hopelessly naïve it sounds now.

No. He can think of one way, if his father’s soldiers saw them before they could stop in this village. Hyakkimaru does not like the idea, but Tahomaru convinces him they’ll get to Dororo faster if they stop here and do this.

He rushes to a stable and finds a horse. It’s a beautiful white mare with a foal, and he feels guilty for having to separate them, but he rushes to find the horse’s owner.

“We need to get to Daigo’s castle as soon as possible,” he explains. “My brother is hurt and we have urgent information that may save someone’s life.”

It’s not quite a lie. He doesn’t know that they will keep Dororo alive, and Hyakkimaru’s left forearm is wrapped to disguise the splintering prosthetic which barely holds together over his sword. He can’t give all the information. He doesn’t know if they would believe him if he said he was Daigo Tahomaru. Even if he would, he's not sure it will yield the best outcome.

“Midoro is our breadwinner, and her foal isn’t fully weaned yet…” the man hesitates, and Tahomaru feels something clenching in the pit of his stomach.

“I’ll…pay you for your troubles,” he says. “I’ll make sure she returns to you unharmed.”

He swallows hard, preparing to offer his brother’s sword as collateral. He won’t like it, but he’ll still have the ones in his forearms, and it will be better than risking something terrible happening.

But as he turns to explain this to him, he sees Hyakkimaru already halfway over the fence and inside her pen. He and Dororo have tried to explain to him that he can’t just go up to other people’s horses, and he’s said he understands that, but it never quite seems to stop him from trying.

“Ah, don’t do that!” the man cries, faltering between rushing over to remove him from it, and begging Tahomaru to do it.

Midoro whinnies and snorts fiercely, stepping between Hyakkimaru and her foal, stamping a foot. To his credit, even though he’s halfway through the posts, he stops, simply holding out a hand for her until she’s calmed down enough to nuzzle into it. The act calms him, too. Though his expression does not change, Tahomaru hears him sigh.

Admittedly, this is the other reason he had thought to borrow a horse. If it keeps his brother from panicking or trying to hack through everything in his path or anything else equally reckless, then that’s better than the alternative. He needs both of them thinking clearly right now.

 

He doesn’t know what finally makes the man agree to it, as he apologizes profusely to the horse and promises she will be all right. Watching him is almost enough to make Tahomaru backtrack on the deal, but Hyakkimaru has already mounted and rubs his forehead against her neck just once, and so he huffs out a sigh and follows him.

Hyakkimaru does not like the saddle. He fidgets and gives a startled grunt when it seems like it’s going to move, and when Tahomaru asks, he says, “It feels like falling.”

And so Tahomaru switches places with him, letting his brother grip around his midsection as he drives Midoro onwards. He still doesn’t like it, but at least it stops him from squirming so much.

And Midoro is _fast_. He’s surprised none of the soldiers have claimed her before, and wonders if his theory that they had been spotted before they could enter the village and take her holds weight after all. There’s no other reason he can think of why they would have ignored her.

Unfortunately, fast doesn’t mean invincible, and he hears the hiss of fuses from the bombs only seconds before they go off. Hyakkimaru is fast enough to save himself and his brother, tipping them sideways and rolling—but they hear a pained whinny and see the horse stumble. She struggles to push herself up, and then crashes to the ground again.

Everything is a blur as Hyakkimaru surges forward, and Tahomaru is barely able to catch him and pull him back. Does he think he’s going to do something for Midoro, or take revenge for her against the ones who threw the bombs? “No,” he hisses, just loud enough for his brother to hear. “We have to get out of here. We’ll find Hyogo and Mutsu and rescue Dororo.”

“But—!” Hyakkimaru protests, arm reaching towards the fallen horse. It’s only one word, but he can see his expression, the wide-eyed desperation and confusion.

Even if they _could_ do anything for her, his ears are ringing from the blast, and he has no doubt it’s the same for his brother. It’s going to mess with their balance, and he doesn’t like their chances with that factored in. “She’s dead already,” he continues, still dragging them into the trees. “We have to make sure we survive long enough to get to Dororo.”

Something shifts in him, and he nods, standing fully on his own as they run into the line of trees. Several arrows whip past them, but they manage to lose the soldiers quickly. Or at least, quickly enough.

Only once they have lost them does the full weight of what’s happened hit him. _I’ll make sure she’s returned to you unharmed_. Yet they’d stupidly blazed down the path without even thinking that there might be traps. They have Dororo. They _know_ they’re coming. Why on earth would he have believed…

His brother touches their foreheads together once, and then turns and pushes onward. Guilt won’t bring Midoro back, and it won’t stop their own capture or save Dororo.  He’ll have to compensate that man for her, of course, but he’ll worry about that once he has access to other mares.

Hyakkimaru claws at his own ears as they run, and Tahomaru pushes himself a little harder to keep up. “Hey, don’t do that,” he says, laying a hand over his back as best he can. “The ringing will go away soon.”

At least, he hopes it will. His elder brother only makes a strained whining sound in reply.

 

Hyogo and Mutsu meet them along the way, carrying Tahomaru’s armor with them. “We saw the child and followed the reports of a demon horse,” Mutsu states simply. “We thought you might need this.”

“How is the kid? Will he be all right?” Tahomaru takes the armor, letting them help him work it on over his clothing, smoothing things out as best they can and mercifully resisting the urge to comment on how mismatched he must look.

The question hits Hyakkimaru like a thunderbolt, and he jolts before turning and looking straight at them for the first time. Thankfully, neither of them seems phased by it.

“Your mother beat us to him,” Hyogo offers. “She’s taking him by the river.”

“It was easier for her to conceal him than it would have been for us,” Mutsu nods, finishing up and surveying her handiwork.

“We’ve done what we could, but Lord Daigo Kagemitsu may still have suspected us.”

“He has taken an army and plans to march on Asakura’s soldiers, but there had been things which haven’t seemed quite right up until then. If our suspicions are correct and he _has_ picked up on something, I’m not going to assume he would have gone without leaving someone to keep us in line.”

“As far as we could tell, your mother has not been implicated,” Hyogo smiles just the slightest bit. “The child is much safer with her than with us.”

His brother cannot see the smile, but he still hears the reassurance, and he sighs softly, his stance slackening visibly.

As Hyakkimaru sighs, however, he finally hears the other half of what Mutsu had said before. “Wait, you followed reports of a demon horse? What—” He cuts himself off, swallowing back the bile that threatens to come up. If it’s what he thinks…

“A horse, bearing the demon child and one other rider, was sighted and subdued by bombs. However, the riders escaped into the surrounding woods, and have not been seen since.” Mutsu speaks as though she is simply repeating information.

“The most recent reports state it is searching for its rider now.” Something passes over Hyogo’s expression just then, and Tahomaru really doesn’t want to try to identify it.

Suddenly, a hand grasps his wrist, and Hyakkimaru is staring at him, mouth clamped shut, but questions still pouring out. He knows how to ask, _Is it Midoro?_ or even just _Our horse?_ or _Is her?_ but the words never come.

He really hopes it’s not what it sounds like. “Let’s…find Mother and Dororo.”

 

However he might have hoped he was wrong, that maybe the reports meant a different demon horse, he knows it was too much to ask. The horse in front of them is definitely Midoro, she definitely recognizes them, and she is definitely angry.

Oh, and she breathes fire now, apparently.

To make matters worse, Hyakkimaru can’t seem to commit himself to attacking her. It isn’t that he wants him to jump in and cut recklessly, but his elder brother _does_ have the most experience with this kind of thing, and could probably do it the fastest with the least amount of danger to himself. At least, that would normally be the case.

But he keeps weaving in and out, swinging, but never managing to connect, eyes wide and teeth clenched as if he can’t decide whether he’s outraged or terrified. He barely avoids the columns of flame. And that’s not normal for him unless something is very, _very wrong_.

When he reaches his brother, Hyogo and Mutsu move in, keeping the horse on them as he nearly shakes Hyakkimaru. “What’s wrong?”

“Horse,” he answers, breathing tight.

“Because she’s a demon now?” Is it going to cause problems for him, because the demon has taken the form of the horses he loves? It’s something else, too, isn’t it? If he could just reach inside his brother’s head, make the thoughts translate to words—

“Nno,” he shakes his head, sword arms trembling as his hands used to do. “Not a demon. Horse….is a demon…but not…”

“So you don’t know what it is,” Tahomaru summarizes for him. That isn't the only thing, he's almost certain. Would it be better to make him sit this one out? _Could_ he make him sit this one out?

There’s a loud grunt and he looks up just in time to see Hyogo dodge what would have been a nasty bite, countering it with a swing of his own weapon. It’s not ideal.

Hyakkimaru mumbles something else, but it’s so soft and so haphazardly strung together that he can’t make any sense of it.

A distorted whinny drowns out the rest as one of Mutsu’s arrows finds its mark and buries itself in the demon’s flank. Then there’s the crunch of a hoof coming down on one of the discarded forearms. She tosses her head and Tahomaru swears he hears her growling in a way no horse should be able. The shot should have taken her down, or at least made her stumble for a bit, yet she rights herself too quickly and renews her attack, and Mutsu scrambles to avoid the fire.

It looks like she clears it, and her expression never tells otherwise, but when Hyogo’s shout catches its attention, she slams an open palm over her sleeve repeatedly.

And then Hyakkimaru is up, rushing towards the creature as though nothing happened. Even though he’s certain they can all see the rigidness in his now very real spine.

“Brother!” Tahomaru clamps his hand over his mouth and bites down to stifle the call as he reaches just a second too late. He can’t make things worse by calling attention to him. But he’s not going to do well in this fight. He’s wound too tight and he can still feel his arms trembling where he’d held him just seconds ago and he isn’t used to moving in and out to allow Mutsu’s arrows a moment to hit, or to let Hyogo’s strikes connect without knocking the creature into him.

He staggers to his feet, realizing for the first time that he is shaking, too. _He’s_ not going to be much use in this fight either. It isn’t his first since losing his eye. It isn’t like he hasn’t practiced to work around it. But this…this is beyond anything he could…his brother isn’t fighting well and his friends are barely keeping ahead of the thing and the demon in front of them only exists because he had the bright idea to borrow a horse and wouldn’t take no for an answer and—

Still, he finds himself drawing his weapon, taking a breath to steady himself, and starting towards them.

Then Hyakkimaru leaps back, misses a step, stumbles and twists to right himself, and the demon horse turns and lunges for him.

But before he can cry out for him, Hyogo’s force collides with him, knocking him back several feet, and Tahomaru wants to vomit when he sees the teeth closing around his arm.

“Hyogo!” He can’t hear if the sound is from himself or Mutsu, but her arrow flies and finds the demon’s head. It screams and releases him, and the only consolation is that he can’t see the condition of his arm through his sleeve. For a moment, the demon seems to be burning just below the skin.

She’s already drawn her sword and moved in when Tahomaru and Hyakkimaru regain their footing, and Hyogo stops them with a guttural, “Stay back!” as he draws his own.

There’s a distant, higher whinnying he’s certain he must be imagining as the demon turns its head for only a fraction of a second.

He doesn’t see the moment they plunge their swords into the beast, but he hears the cry from Mutsu as she and her brother scramble back. The horse staggers for a moment, grunting and whinnying and suddenly very much just a scared animal, pushing itself away from them and towards something else before it falls. Hyogo and Mutsu stand only a moment longer before dropping.

And suddenly, it’s like his limbs have remembered how to work and he tears towards them. “Hyogo! Mutsu!”

Neither responds to him, and he screams their names again and again as he closes the gap and drops to his knees. “I’m sorry…I’m sorry…” He reaches for the hands that weren’t mangled in the fight, and continues apologizing until he feels the pulses just below their wrists, sees the rise and fall of their chests. “Oh…” And then he blinks once and the tears flow freely, and he’s practically screaming with relief as he chokes on his own sobs. He hears the footsteps nearby and he knows he’s making a scene, but in that moment, he can’t quite bring himself to care.

 

Dororo wonders if he’s always fated to arrive right in the moment when everything breaks down. Tahomaru is carrying on over the two people he’d seen with him back when they first met, but he can’t remember their names in the moment. There’s a foal gazing forlornly at a beast he knows must have been its mother, and a bunch of other people coming up, murmuring things he can’t quite hear. He hears the boys’ mother gasp only a second before her eldest son starts screaming and writhing, and he knows what’s coming. He guesses even possessing something else, a demon can still yield its stolen parts.

Prosthetic arms drop from the joints as he continues writhing. He’s always wondered why taking back what’s yours has to be so painful.

He should feel relieved, maybe even happy that they seem to be okay. Somehow, he just feels numb. Like he’s watching everything through the bars of the cell the lady had freed him from.

Then Hyakkimaru sits up, making all kinds of odd grunting noises as he strikes one arm against the other, gripping it with his nails as if he can’t process that it’s his.

That shakes something loose in him. “Ah, don’t do that…” he starts forward.

“Hyakkimaru!” the boys’ mother cries out, and he shoves himself back, eyes wide and teeth clenched. His breathing is ragged from more than just the effort of regrowing the arms he clumsily folds behind his back.

That’s…not the reaction he was expecting. Not from any of the conversations he’s had with Tahomaru or between the three of them. He hadn’t thought they were separated that long. What happened in that time?

“Hey, bro…” Dororo starts forward, holding his hands out to let him see them.

But then the lady starts again, “Hyakkimaru…” She moves forward as if compelled, and he flinches.

“Mother, stand back a moment…” A watery voice calls as an armored hand blocks her path. “I don’t know what’s going on, but…” He gives a shaky sigh. "Please, just give us a moment to handle it.”

“What’s scaring you, bro?” Dororo continues. “This is your mama, so how come you’re scared of her?”

Behind him, he feels the lady flinch. But thankfully, she doesn’t try to approach a second time, though Tahomaru withdraws his hand and matches his pace.

“Brother, is it all right if I come over to you?” he asks.

They wait for him to nod before closing the gap, and as soon as he starts to pull away, they stop and sit down. “This okay?” Dororo waits for his second nod before continuing. “Okay, now what’s wrong?”

He doesn’t answer for a long while, until finally, Dororo asks, “Can I see your hands?”

That draws a reaction, a small but fierce shake of the head. But at least his breathing’s evened out by now.

“Why don’t you want us to see them?” Tahomaru joins, biting at the inside of his cheek. He’s starting to put something together, and Dororo really wishes he could have known what happened before he got there.

There’s a shrug, but he still refuses to look at either of them.

“Do they hurt?” Dororo asks.

He shakes his head again. That one’s a lie. But he gets what he means: it’s not why he’s hiding them.

“Can you tell us why you’re hiding them, then?”

There’s a pause, and then a slight, side-to-side motion. Less than before, but still enough to get the point across.

“Okay.” None of them says anything else, and neither tries to move any closer. It’s okay. They can take their time.


	2. Improvise and Adapt

No one is sure just how long they sit like that before anyone moves, before Hyakkimaru slowly unfolds the hands from behind his back and holds them out to the two of them. He watches them carefully through his bangs, and for a moment, Dororo wonders what he’s looking for. There’s the slightest flinch as they reach back to touch his hands, but he holds steady, and so they continue. First Dororo, then Tahomaru. As it has always been.

In some ways, his big bro’s hands feel wrong. They’re not rough with callouses from years of wielding swords and working outdoors. They don’t suit him yet, and it’s weird to think so.

Hyakkimaru closes the gap just a little more, eyes wide as his arms brush against them, and Dororo lets him inch his way closer for only a second more before he grabs him and yanks him against the both of them. Tahomaru gasps and Hyakkimaru nearly flails before they finally just accept it.

And it would be really nice if they could just stay like that for about three hours longer, but Dororo is suddenly all-too-aware of a sickening squelching from somewhere behind them. He doesn’t even have the chance to look around before the lady cries out and Hyakkimaru shoves both of them, _hard_ , and jumps up away from them, tearing away as some shapeless, shadowy _thing_ comes barreling towards him.

“Hyakkimaru!” Tahomaru goes after him, straining himself to keep up. Dororo can’t hear what they’re saying, but a moment later, Tahomaru breaks off, running in one direction as Hyakkimaru heads the other way, the creature following him.

There hadn’t been anything hiding it, yet he’s still not even sure what it _is_ , squelching and hissing, both smoke and rot at once. He’s not even sure what he should compare the shape to.

“Such a strong curse…” Dororo whips around at a familiar, gravely voice. “To think that it would all come to this.”

Dororo can remember only a handful of times in his life when he’s been as powerless as this. His bro just got his hands back, and now all he can think is that he might lose everything he fought for. And with Tahomaru tearing off in the other direction, he might lose both of them.

“I have to stop it! Please, there has to be something!” he cries, his voice embarrassingly shrill.

The old priest only looks at him with a pitying expression, but one that knows all-too-well the situation he’s in. “It may no longer be possible to stop it. A curse born of hatred and desperation…it will rampage until it is either killed, or it consumes everything.”

“No!” Dororo hardly recognizes his own shriek. So every demon his bro has killed, everything he’s fought to get back, every effort Tahomaru made to learn, all of his own questioning and their fighting through everything on the way—that’s all been for nothing? They’re just going to get eaten anyway?

Someone from one of the surrounding villages stands from where he’s fixed the bindings on Hyogo and Mutsu’s wounds. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’ve been hearing rumors of a demon child stalking around and killing beasts. Is it true that when he kills them, that’s when the disasters hit?”

Dororo feels his blood pounding in his ears and he stands up, spitting, “So what? _So what_? You wanna go chase him down and feed him to that _thing_?”

“But if it’s that thing’s going to devour everything, wouldn’t it be better to—”

Dororo doesn’t even hear the rest before he pounces, pounding the guy’s face and chest as he shields himself with his arms. “You stupid jerk! Dumbass! Crap head! Do you have any idea what he’s gone through to get his body back! And you’ve all gone through a ton of stuff, too!”

One of the others picks him up as he screams. Hot, angry tears leak out as he flails and kicks him. “ _I’ve_ been through a ton of stuff! And Tahomaru! Did your damn rumors tell you he’s been missing? He’s been going around trying to figure out how to help your stupid land! And you wanna throw it all away just like that! You wanna sit back and whine about the samurai while a bunch of kids fix all your crap, and then you just spit all over it!”

“Look, look! We’re not saying we agree with it or it’s right, but if it’s between—” The man holding him starts.

Dororo twists and kicks him harder. “Well, I hope when you feed them to the demons, they eat your stupid—!”

“Dororo,” the priest stops him. It’s only one word, but he hears the rest of it, too.

“Why shouldn’t I?” Why shouldn’t he say it? “They said it’s better to let them get eaten and—”

“And it may be true,” the boys’ mother interrupts, and Dororo prepares to round on her. “Still, a peace built on the sacrifice of one…I wonder how long something like that could last?” She laughs bitterly, remembering something. “But then, I wonder if any of us have truly known peace…”

“Huh?” He isn’t sure if the sound comes from him, or one of the others.

The lady stands, suddenly stronger than she’s been the entire time he’s known her. “I think I understand something, now…”

 

Hyakkimaru tears through the grass, keeping low so it covers his head. But he can hear the demon shrieking not too far behind. The blades from his swords bite into his hands, and he in turn bites his lip to keep from hissing. His brothers will yell at him for holding them that way later. But is he supposed to go without a weapon? Against that?

The plants will shield him for a bit. He tucks the blades under his arm and rips off the cloth around his ankles. It’s not good, and he has to wrap the second one with his teeth, but it will be better than nothing.

He hisses as the cloth presses into the wounds on his palms. Why had he wanted hands so badly? But they’re his now, and he can’t give them back. He _won’t_.

He has to focus over the blood rushing in his ears, over the pounding of his own heart and the burning he feels in his legs. Tahomaru had a plan— _has_ a plan. He has to remember it.

Lead the demon away, buy him some time. That’s done. Though at this point, he hears the demon gurgling and growling. It might just be toying with him. If he can get to the water, he might be able to hide his scent. But then it might see his soul in that moment, where the grass conceals it here. He’s always been certain the demons can see his soul.

Then find him. Go up where he found Daigo’s castle before. Track his aura if he has trouble. He crouches and crawls away from where the deep red flames burn. Tahomaru vastly overestimates the range of his ability to see souls.

But he knows where the castle is. He can find that. He can get to it.

The demon roars in triumph, a shriek, a gurgle, and a growl all at once, and he scrambles to his feet and runs.

 

Tahomaru catches himself against the frame as he enters the house. He won’t have much time. Hyakkimaru is fast, but he can’t run forever. He’s intelligent, but he doesn’t want to bet on his ability to hide from a demon.

The servants gasp at his sudden return. Is it because of his state or because they simply hadn’t expected him? “There’s a demon on the way,” he rasps, forcing himself to stand straighter. “Please, get out of here now. I don’t want any of you caught in this.”

Confused glances pass through the group, and he can guess what they want to say. _Has he gone mad? What does he mean, a demon is heading here?_

But there isn’t time for that. “ _Now!_ ” he orders, “Get out of here!”

“Young master…” a young woman ventures.

“Go,” he says again. “Get as far away as you can. I’ll take care of it.”

“You won’t die, young master?” For a moment, he wonders if that concern is real, or mere obligation.

“…I won’t.”

He wonders if he will be able to keep that promise.

Once they have left, he checks the rooms to make sure no one has stayed behind. Then he finds the screens and slides them open just enough to wedge a hand or a sword through. They’re going to be at a disadvantage no matter how fast Hyakkimaru is, and if it goes how he expects, they won’t have much time to react. He swallows hard and lights a lamp. A part of him had hoped that when everything ended, he would be able to show him the home where he grew up. It’s not going to be possible, now. But it’s better than risking the alternative.

This will be fine.

 

The first thing he notices when his brother arrives is that his hands are wrapped, and he’s holding two swords by their exposed blades. Because of course he would.

“Why didn’t you throw them away?” he asks. “I would have given you a proper one if you’d told me you needed it.” It’s almost amusing, how long the blades are added to the full length of his arms. If he’d known to look for one, perhaps he could even have found a shorter sword for him.

Hyakkimaru shrugs as he catches his breath. “Panicked.”

That almost draws a laugh, but he hasn’t forgotten the reason he had come running here. He tilts the lamp in his hands. It’s possible they could beat it the way they normally do, but he hasn’t been fighting well today, and he’s almost lost people not an hour before. It’s better to do it this way.

“You’re going to be at a disadvantage because of your longer reach now,” he says.  “But we need to keep it inside, once it arrives. We’ll lead it as far in as we can, then we’ll escape. We’ll let it die in the castle where we were born. Because I’ll bring…because I’ll…I’m going to…”

He’s shaking, he realizes. The last demon, the one which has failed again and again, forced to scavenge from its fallen peers…As much as he wants to believe this will be it, he doesn’t trust it to go without dragging one of them with it.

“Tahomaru.” His brother cannot reach for him with his swords in his hands, but he turns and leans in until their foreheads touch.

Barely a second later, the demon screeches and crashes in.

 

The brothers leap and scramble through the house, just barely fast enough. The demon has the advantage of strength—it can smash right through the paper screens much more easily than they can—but some things don’t yield as easily.

And they use that, vaulting themselves up higher and higher, leading the demon over weakened floorboards as the flames climb higher and higher.

Just as they’d hoped, the boards break, but they fall with it. Tahomaru bites back a cry as his brother catches him and twists, shielding him from at least some of the impact. _You can’t keep doing that! Idiot! One day you’ll die doing that!_ But the only sound that comes is a choked gasp as they force themselves up and continue fighting.

Everything is uncomfortably hot and all the rooms seem to blur together. Distorted screams echo through the hellfire, and he hears his brother shout as the demon finally seems to realize it, trying to flee. Before Tahomaru realizes what’s happening, his brother darts after it, and he hears the crunch as it smashes back through.

He pushes himself up, wiping his eye as smoke clouds his vision. His armor is suddenly too tight and too heavy, but he won’t have time to remove it. He doesn’t want to die like this. He finds a foothold and pushes himself up, spits ash, and covers his mouth with his arm as he staggers after them. He doesn’t want to die here.

He’s always been the weaker sibling.

 

Hyakkimaru hacks and spits, turning again and again to avoid flames and debris and demon alike. Its shrieks are coming lower, more strained. Good. The muscles in his legs are burning. His back hurts where he hit the ground. He doesn’t know how much longer he could have held out.

Lead the demon. Escape. That’s the plan.

But where’s Tahomaru? He hears the moans of the beast behind him, the creak as it tries to drag itself along. But he can’t hear Tahomaru.

He tries to cry out, but the crunch of another beam breaking drowns him out.

No good then. He has to find him by sight.

He can’t see the fire, but he can feel its heat. And he can see the beams it brings down around him—they haven’t completely smoldered away.

_Where is Tahomaru?_

He lost him after they broke through the floor. Back that way, then.

His feet feel like they’re burning, but he’s not stepping in the flames. He remembers that sensation. But he can feel something else, too. So why can’t he see him? Is it the fire and ash? Why should that—?

“Tahomaru!” he screams out, and immediately regrets it as pain rips through his throat.

“Bro…ther…” The answer is faint, but he tries to focus on it, reaching out his hands in case he is also looking for him.

His hand brushes him almost before he registers him, and his younger brother sags into his arms.

“Stupid,” he whispers. “You should have gotten out.”

There’s a lot he should be able to say to that, but he finds himself repeating, “Lead the demon. Buy time. Find you.” The words scratch against his throat.

“Then…we go…” Tahomaru pushes himself up, and stumbles.

Before he fully registers it himself, he’s loading Tahomaru onto his back, hissing as the cloth bites into his hands and he feels a warm wetness seeping into it. He shifts, trying to put most of the weight on his wrists and arms instead. Tahomaru is heavier with the armor, but there’s no time to remove it.

“We go.”

 

Dororo stands near the edge of the burning house. And he knows what he should be thinking. He shouldn’t be surprised. “Bro! Tahomaru!” he calls.

He doesn’t know why he expected an answer. He’s had a lot happen, and he’s finally starting to figure some things out. So of course he’s going to lose them now.

He bites his lip and blinks back tears, curling his fists. No. He’s not going to accept that. He calls out again.

He tries to remember what the lady—Nui?—had said before. What everyone around him had agreed to. They aren’t going to waste everything the three of them have fought for. They’re going to make a new peace, this time with their own hands. They’ll fight and bleed and build it together.

But, some small part of him protests, it won’t mean a thing if the idiots who got them to work towards it just immediately turn around and get themselves killed!

He folds over and focuses, trying to clear his head. _Breathe._ He can’t just sit back and do nothing.

It’s stupid. It’s probably going to get him killed. But he finds a space where the flames aren’t climbing and runs to it. He wipes his brow. He can feel the heat, but the flames won’t get him here. Not yet. He’ll still have time to run, even if…

Taking a breath, he screams out louder. “Bro!! Tahomaru!!”

There’s some kind of sound in reply. Not the wild, guttural howling of the early days, but not quite his name either.

He calls out again, starting to run closer but then thinking better of it. He’s in a good spot to get out if worst comes to worst. And he’s not going to leave them, but he’s not stupid enough to go charging all the way in, either.

“Bro!! Tahomaru!!”

And when they finally stumble towards him, they look terrible. Hyakkimaru’s hair is coming loose from its tie, and his hands are wrapped, but it’s pretty obvious he’s bleeding through it. His face and legs are scratched up and there are burns on his ankles and feet.

Tahomaru isn’t as obvious, covered up by his armor and mostly shielded from view by his brother’s body, but he’s not walking and he looks like he’s barely conscious. And he’s probably bleeding from somewhere, knowing them.

“Bro!” Dororo gasps.

Hyakkimaru smiles weakly. “We go, Doro…”

And with that, he drops, groaning feebly as he tries to drag the two of them along, just a little farther.

Dororo jumps forward, grabbing each of them under an arm and trying to drag them out. It’s hopeless. He’s too small to move even one of them, let alone both.

But he can’t let them die here, and he pushes Tahomaru onto his back and fumbles to strip the armor off of him. It won’t be enough, but it’s the only thing he can think to do. They’re stirring, but he’s not sure if either of them is really conscious.

“Help…” the words come in a feeble, choked whimper, and he swallows hard. “Help me…Help me!! It’s my brothers—It’s—!!”

He’s still working, yanking armor off wherever it comes, screaming louder and louder until he can barely recognize his own voice. “ _Please someone help me!!”_

A large hand settles over his shoulder, and he jumps, biting his tongue mid-scream as he turns. “You’re—”

Jukai neither smiles nor frowns, both grief and understanding radiating from him at once. He does not speak, but briefly checks the boys for injuries before loading them onto his shoulders.

Then he stands, and they walk away from the burning hellfire that was once his brother’s home.

“Come,” Jukai says simply, and Dororo does not look back.

 

Nui meets them at what used to be a well, not far from the main house. Neither of the boys has stirred, but Jukai hasn’t said anything, so Dororo hopes that means they're okay.

Still, something piques in his expression when he sees her. But whatever it is he notices, he does not comment on it.

She rises and reaches out her hands. “Who are you,” she wonders aloud, “that you rescued my sons?”

He hesitates a moment, then answers. “For all purposes, at this moment, I am a doctor.”

Dororo is about to tell her who this man _really_ is, when he sighs and amends. “No, I suppose that’s not quite true. I am also this boy’s father, in every way but blood.”

Tears well in her eyes and spill over. “Thank you…for making sure my eldest wasn’t alone.”

His eyes lower a fraction, but he replies, “You resemble my Hyakkimaru.” Then something steels. “But we must get them away from here. I need to treat them, and I don’t want to risk their inhaling any more smoke if the fire spreads.”

It won’t, Dororo is confident. If Tahomaru set that fire, and he’s fairly certain he did, then he has to have known what he was doing. Still, it's probably not a bad idea to run.

Nui reaches out her hands again. “Then please, let me take Tahomaru,” she says. And there’s something fragile and guilty and _raw_ in it that makes Dororo avert his eyes and bite the inside of his cheek.

He wishes his brother could be awake to hear it. But Jukai nods and stoops down, passing Tahomaru to her, helping her situate him so she won’t exacerbate any injuries.

As they flee, Dororo imagines the castle crumbling and crashing down on top of the final demon’s remains.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had originally intended not to watch the last episode until I finished writing this chapter, but then about a third of the way through, I realized I kind of needed to understand a little better what the inside of Daigo castle looked like. The idea of the demon corrupting into a sort of vague, instinctual form "like a curse" was an idea I'd had around the time episode 22 came out and it looked like they were trying really hard to capitalize on the "might become a demon" thing, but I didn't have the idea for how to deal with it until episode 23 aired.
> 
> I had also originally thought that I would do the entirety of the thing in two chapters, but as I started writing the stuff that comes after this, it became increasingly obvious to me that if I did that, this chapter would be twice as long as the one before it in a fic where I really didn't want that to be the case. Tonally, it also felt like it should be its own chapter, rather than an extension of this one. 
> 
> I've got the next part of On the Knife's Edge edited, so I hope to post that later today, and the next chapter of Patchwork Family Tree is underway, but will probably not be finished until sometime next week. For this one, I expect I'll have the final part written and edited sometime next week as well. I have a few more ideas churning around, but I'm trying to keep them in bullet-point form until I finish at least one of these.
> 
> In any event, please let me know what you think!  
> ~Rin


	3. With Eyes Unclouded

The boys are still as Jukai treats them, only the rise and fall of their chests indicating life. He has always feared what fire can do to his son, even more when his limbs were made of wood and he felt no pain, and he has to fight to still his hands. He will not let his fears harm either of them.

For a moment, he wonders if it should not have been him who was trapped inside that smoldering hell, instead of them. Why do parents’ sins always fall on the heads of their children?

But he banishes the thought, and continues his work.

Their wounds are serious, but he had felt the heat of the blaze, and he knows it could have easily been worse. The woman next to him, their mother, kneels just above them, praying almost constantly, occasionally reaching forward and carding her fingers through their hair.

She gasps and bites down on her hand as she watches some of his treatment. Medicine is seldom a pretty sight, and he would rather it be effective than pleasant to watch.

Still, he has to stop and steady his breathing every so often. How close he had come to losing them. And they aren’t out of the woods yet, but now, they won’t die lost and afraid while he remains powerless to do anything.

 

Dororo was shooed away around the time they started treatment, and he still hasn’t been allowed back. He doesn’t understand why, when he let their mother stay with them. So what if he’s just a kid? It’s not like he hasn’t seen worse, and he voices as much.

“He probably wouldn’t have wanted her with him, either,” Mutsu observes. “But I doubt he would have been able to force her to leave.”

She watches them impassively, though the effect is lessened by her position lying on one of the straw mats, rather than standing or even kneeling. There’s a tightness in her jaw which makes it clear she doesn’t want to be here anymore than Dororo does. Her place is at Tahomaru’s side, as is her brother’s, and it is almost offensive to her for them not to be there. He understands that a little, he thinks.

For a moment, he lets his eyes trail to the stump where her arm used to be. She’s got a bit more left than Hyogo, probably since from what he heard, she wasn’t as close for as long. He wasn’t really sure how she’d lost hers, but it might have something to do with what the priest had said, about the demon becoming a curse? He’s not sure quite how that works.

In any event, it will probably be awhile before she can fire an arrow, and longer before either of them is back to where they were before.

She catches his eye. “Don’t.”

She doesn’t have to tell him what she means. He’s been there, too. Not in this exact situation, but he knows the feeling.

So he turns away and they return to watching as Hyakkimaru’s papa works. He finds himself rocking, though not quite in the way Hyakkimaru sometimes did. He knows he should be calm, that this is the part where they’ve gotten out of the trap or the monster’s jaws or whatever impossible thing they had to crawl from. But something just doesn’t sit right with him, and he can’t put his finger on what.

In the end, all he can say is that something feels wrong about the situation they just left.

The priest looks out over the horizon. Maybe he’s imagining the ruins of the castle they burned. Or maybe he can actually see them. Dororo’s never been certain just how much he can see with that second sight of his. It’s never quite been clear with Hyakkimaru, either.

“A curse of such desperation is bound to leave a mark,” he says. And for a second or two, Dororo wants to kick him, because that’s not a real answer. But at the same time, he thinks that maybe he’s not telling him any more than that because he knows he doesn’t really want to hear it. Or maybe he just doesn’t know what that mark will be any better than Dororo does.

His hand reaches over his shoulder, feeling the marks along his own back. _Breathe in, hold, breathe out_. It’s not the same.

 

Jukai continues to work back and forth between his sons and the two he does not know, checking bindings and making sure their wounds are properly tended. The situation is far from ideal, but they will not become infected and fester if he has any say in the matter.

The young woman he tends to watches him the entire time, whether he is working on her or any of the others, expression neutral even when she tenses up or bites back a hiss of pain. The man next to her awakens sometime during this, and a part of him is relieved that he was not conscious for the worst of it. Neither says anything to the other, and in some ways, it reminds him of preparing Hyakkimaru’s young body for a new set of prosthetics.

It’s strange to think that he would one day look back and see that as a simpler time.

 

Tahomaru’s temperature is too high, and Hyakkimaru’s is not much better, and he works to cool them. Dororo rushes to bring water and rags, and their mother dabs at their faces as he lays the strips over the warmest areas of their bodies. At least they are still sweating.

It resolves more easily than he expected, as he watches their muscles relax and their breathing even out. He does not hurry to cover them, though, and rouses them just enough to get some water into them before allowing them to continue their rest. The fact that he is able to rouse them, even briefly, should be comforting, but he worries at how quickly unconsciousness reclaims them. For what they have endured, he reminds himself, this is to be expected.

He’ll keep an eye on this for the next few days.

He does not want to leave them outside for the night. It’s simply not a good idea, even without considering the possibility of yokai.

Once they are ready to be moved, one of the residents of a nearby village offers to let him use his home for their sickroom. He thanks him profusely, but it is far less than what he feels he should. The man does not seem to realize the extent of his act.

It is small, but Jukai has worked in worse conditions.

The two he had not recognized are Tahomaru’s retainers, Nui tells him, and their names are Mutsu, and her brother, Hyogo. He has them stay in the makeshift hospital as well, at least to keep an eye on them for the night. They’ve been awake for awhile, but an infection could still develop, and he doesn’t want to risk it. And besides, he doubts he could keep the two of them away from Tahomaru.

 

Hyakkimaru wakes several times, but is never conscious for long. If that half-awake state where he says nothing and barely looks at anything can count as consciousness. And when he is asleep, he’s almost completely still, save for a twitch in his face or eye, a tensing up somewhere in his body before he slackens once more.

It is Tahomaru who remains awake first, and Dororo is as surprised as he is. But Jukai doesn’t seem alarmed when he checks them, and so they try not to worry too much. Still, Tahomaru decides to remain with his brother, at least until he can stay awake for more than a few moments before drifting off.

“He took several hits for me,” Tahomaru says, sounding like his mind is miles away. “So I think it would be better if he knows…”

“He knows, Tahomaru. I am certain that he knows,” Jukai answers as he re-wraps Hyakkimaru’s hands. The bleeding has stopped, and they have kept ahead of any possible infections thus far, but it does not mean there won’t be complications.

 

They remain with him, Dororo and Tahomaru. Jukai is in and out, tending to the sick and the injured, returning to them, changing bandages and applying treatments and forcing them to rest or take food or water where they can. He makes Tahomaru do some exercises which he’s seen his big bro walk himself through before, and several others he hasn’t. Nui prays almost constantly. Upon seeing Tahomaru awake, she gives a cry of relief and pulls him into her arms, leaving him completely dumbfounded.

Dororo doesn’t hear what she says, but it’s enough to bring tears to Tahomaru’s eyes before he hastily directs her attention to Hyakkimaru. And Dororo wants to tell him he should just accept it, that isn’t he just turning around and getting her to do the same thing that had upset him before?  But something makes him bite his tongue.

It’s just like him the first time Hyakkimaru put his forehead to his, isn’t it? That must be what it looks like from the outside.

And so he takes up his place next to his big bro. He can’t get to his back when he’s lying flat, so instead, he takes his hand just above the wrist, and turns his arm to let him trace patterns along the inside of his forearm. He hopes it has the same effect, and he almost swears he hears a contented sigh.

Dororo talks to him in those moments. It’s always shorter than it had been before—his big bro can’t tell him when he’s overwhelmed and needs to stop right now, so he guesses and errs on the side of too quiet. Sometimes Tahomaru joins the conversation, adding to what he says or simply making observations.

And sometimes, it almost feels like it did before, and he can almost pretend that they’re just huddling together in an old hut after a rough day or a bad storm, just quietly soothing an overwhelmed brother to sleep.

 

Dororo wakes to the sound of muffled whimpering and moaning. Rubbing his eyes, he pushes himself up and sees Tahomaru holding a shaking Hyakkimaru, carding his fingers through his hair and giving the order for Hyogo and Mutsu to find Jukai.

“It’s okay,” he whispers. “This is fine, brother. We’re safe here.”

Dororo finds his place at his big bro’s side, rubbing his hand up and down his arm until he manages to dig out the cloth they’ve always used, dragging that along to let him feel it. Hyakkimaru mumbles almost deliriously and reaches for him. He’s not really awake, but not fully asleep either. And though he can’t understand most of the words, both of them can clearly make out “mama.” Somewhere in there, he finds their hands and winds his own around them.

Mutsu returns first, Nui in tow. She tells them that Jukai is on his way, and Hyogo will be bringing him shortly. Hyakkimaru is still crying in that half-dreaming state, and Nui reaches for him almost before she realizes what she is doing. He flinches away with a whine as her hand brushes his temple, and she pulls back as if she’s been burned—or as if _she_ had burned him. And Dororo wants to tell her that it’s okay, that sometimes if he’s overwhelmed, he does that. It might just be too many of them at once, or he doesn’t know her as well. But something makes him bite it back.

Besides that, it would only have made it harder for her when Jukai enters moments later, checking him for fever before scooping him into his arms. Hyakkimaru goes rigid, and then slumps into him, letting Jukai rock him back and forth as he softly whimpers into his clothing.

“What’s scaring you, Hyakkimaru?” His voice rumbles low. “Did you think something happened? You’re all right, now. Just sleep it off, and we’ll be right there with you.”

In that moment, Dororo almost understands why his big bro insists on calling this man “mama.” Jukai holds him even after he quiets down, and then awhile longer once his breathing has evened out and he grows still once more.

Tahomaru finds his way to Hyogo, who lays his right hand—his remaining hand—over his shoulder. He can imagine the firm, steady weight even watching him. Mutsu watches silently from her position between them and Nui, never quite looking directly at them even though Dororo knows she must be seeing them. As for Nui herself, she starts as if to reach for her, and then looks a little further to Tahomaru, and then to her eldest, to Jukai, and to Dororo. She takes a breath, and then bows her head, silently praying, perhaps for all of them.

Dororo remains in his place by his brothers’ mat, breathing in and out and resisting the urge to pick at his fingernails until there’s nothing left. This is fine. It’s just like his own bad nights. This will be fine.

 

He doesn’t remember falling asleep, but as he stirs awake, he becomes aware of a weight over his back. The boys’ mother has draped her outer robe over him and moved closer to Tahomaru.

He tries to remember what happened last night. No one quite touches each other, and for a moment Dororo has to fight not to start screaming for his big bro. Because none of it means he’s dead and there’s no reason to think that based on anything that happened either last night or in the days leading up to it.

Besides that, everyone looks fairly calm—or at least, what he imagines calm looks like for each of them—and the slightest smile plays on Tahomaru’s features. Dororo bites back a pout. What does _he_ know that Dororo doesn’t?

Someone shifts, and he hears Jukai’s voice calling, “Careful, slow down just a bit…” Before he registers who he means, he hears a thump and a slight hiss, and then feels a bandaged hand resting on top of his head.

For a split second, his heart stops. His breath hitches and he knows what’s coming next. But dammit, if Tahomaru got to scream and carry on over his friends, surely Dororo can, too.

And then he pushes himself up and turns to look, taking that bandaged hand in his own and holding just above the wrist, where he can feel it. Tears spill out as he takes in the person in front of him for what feels like the first time all over again.

“Dororo?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had contemplated going into more detail about what happens next, but I also kind of wanted to leave some things open, too. There are things where I like to speculate on multiple possibilities, rather than pinning one down. That said, there is also a very distinctive possibility that I may end up writing some of those ideas at some point. 
> 
> I suppose this is the part where I admit that I had actually originally planned for Hyakkimaru not to get his eyes back, that when the demon broke down into that other form, the eyes were effectively destroyed. But then I was also tempted by the possibility of fics involving him acclimating to his eyes, and so I opted to leave it open.
> 
> There were a lot of moments I wanted to give to characters that I didn't get to do as much as I wanted to here, though I tried to give them at least a bit of a moment in a way that felt natural for me to write. But I'll probably do something with that at some point, knowing me...
> 
> In any event, please let me know what you think!  
> ~Rin

**Author's Note:**

> I take full responsibility for the horse and I apologize for that. Particularly since I kind of made it at least partially the protagonists' fault in-universe this time, and since I was otherwise trying to eliminate as many character deaths as I could. I'm going to go ahead and blame my Silent Hill AU, since there's always one character in each game you can't save no matter what you do.
> 
> This one also exists in a variant of the timeline I've created in my own AU, though a different variant than "Needs of the Few," as I had stated in the other notes. There may be some things here that don't fit quite right if you haven't read the others, but it exists as kind of a culmination of several other stories in my "Tahomaru joins the group" AU.
> 
> I don't know that I necessarily have a "main AU" endgame at this point, but...
> 
> I attempted to tone the violence down a bit from canon, in part because there's only so much I can stomach in my own writing, and in part because I don't frequently write action scenes, and so I didn't want to go quite that far with it. Also because I am trying to get as close to an Everybody Lives AU as I can. 
> 
> I had wanted to finish it completely and edit the whole thing before posting, but I think after watching the episode, it's better if I post now than if I make giant posts on the other website about specific storytelling tropes I don't like with very few exceptions and the things I did like. Also, I needed more of the boys bonding like right now, and the more I write, the more I fuel my other writings, apparently.
> 
> In any event, I will attempt to complete the second half, and maybe get on with some of my other fics, in a relatively timely manner.  
> Please let me know what you think!  
> ~Rin


End file.
